Desrtuction of Deralia
The Dig The decimation of the Deralian Confederal Union wasn't a prolonged campaign by the New Sith Order that some may have wagered their credits on. Nor was it caused by the vicious neighbours that borders the territorial lines of the Union that had plagued the DCU since its formation. What ultimately ended the Union, no one could have foreseen nor could they have predicted that their downfall would happen so swift and in such devastation and it wasn't due to an unexpected natural occurrence like a Supernova or a Black Hole. The entire chain of events occurred by an accidental finding by an archaeological team that was part of the DCU. On one of the forty-eight planets within the DCU's territories, a team was doing their routine archaeological digs, one of many that was queued on their list. The location was a rather rural area that wasn't heavily settled by civilisation and infused with technology. There were small town settlements scattered across the habitable parts of the planet and the area that the dig site was located was pretty much ignored. The dig was like any other successful digs; they found some ancient carvings and traces of some sort of ancient archaic civilization. They were about to pack up and cross this one off their list when a sensor anomaly occurred in their findings. Somewhere underneath the area they had dug out, the sensors weren't able to penetrate. It was picking up nothing, which was the problem. They've tried recalibrating the sensors without success and when they used a second sensor, the results were the same. This in turn piqued the archaeologists' interest and they started digging again, deeper this time to find out what is causing the anomaly. Smart money was on some geological matter than was blocking their sensor scan. Smart money, in this case, would have lost. What they unearthed was an ancient underground temple with unidentified markings everywhere. Taking precautions and great care, they navigated their way into the temple, making sure that there were no traps hidden to dissuade adventurers or tomb robbers from entering. What they found in the middle of the ancient temple was a sarcophagus that contained the remains of someone ancient. Surprisingly the ceremonial armour, at least that was what it looked like, remained in pristine condition. Since their scanners did not work in this area, they had no real way to map the entire temple but in the main tomb, one of the archaeologists tripped a switch for a hidden chamber through sheer luck. Within the room, sitting on the pedestal was some sort of cube like artefact. After observing it visually and taking notes, then trying to scan it with their equipment to no avail, they decided to take the item and have it sent to a more sophisticated research facility, their main research headquarters on Deralia. What they didn't know was that disturbing the tomb and the relic alerted an ancient sect that had removed themselves from this part of the galaxy and in turn, heralded the destruction of the Deralian Confederal Union. The Slaughter Begins The ancient sect has been around for millennia and their technology had surpassed anything that the DCU has ever encountered. The DCU themselves had pretty advanced technological advances when compared to the current standings of various governments and cultures but nothing could have prepared them for what is about to hit them. The invading force first appeared in the system which was lightly guarded, the task given to a small patrol group that consists mainly of one frigate and a few corvettes. The invaders did not hyperspace in through the usual routes, in fact they did not hyperspace in at all but instead just appeared in formation, either through extremely advance technology, mystical powers, or a combination of both. Communication throughout the system was immediately jammed and the patrol group was obliterated within a few volleys from the attackers, without warning or provocation. The invading capital ships then spread out and started to annihilate the various town and settlements from orbit while sending in a tactical ground force to the dig site. All scientists, archaeologists, and guards were killed on the spot and any defence they put up was futile as the light weapons they were equipped with to defend themselves had no effect on the invaders. With the recovering of the sarcophagus completed, the invaders departed from the planet and levelled the site. After the planet's populace was destroyed, the attack on the DCU began in earnest. The main attack force struck quickly and hard at Deralia, the main capital which happened to hold the ancient artefact from the dig site. Various attack groups also hit other systems at the same time, focusing on major military instalments, shipyards, factories, etc. Those other outposts were eradicated in quick order but the defenders in the Deralian system put up a good fight, or at least what could be considered good in terms of how lopsided the fight was. The Deralian defenders had no chance at all of any possibility of victory, or even a stalemate and eventually they realized that. Their initial strategy to repel the invaders was fruitless. When concentrated fire from various battle cruisers and destroyers didn't punch through the advanced shielding and their targeting sensors weren't able to get a clear lock on whatever they were targeting, the military commanders changed the strategy to buy time and evacuate who they can. Even when a returning patrol group surprise attacked invaders from the rear, they were unable to break the attacking line and were crushed. Civilian ships begin to pour off of the planet as soon as they were able to but despite having multiple escorts, most succumbed to enemy fire or technology that removed their abilities to escape. As hours passed by, the orbit of Deralia transformed from a ring of valiant defenders to a ring of debris. The defending starships were either blasted to pieces by superior firepower or boarded by breaching pods and the crew as well as their defenders slaughtered. Chunks and bits of starship parts, starfighter parts, and transports were left adrift as the invaders took over area. Only a handful of ships were able to make their escape and most, if not all were damaged in one form or another. All escaping vessels were civilian type transports and ships, the military stayed behind to do what they could to either open an avenue of escape, no matter how brief the window was, sacrificing themselves to do so. Countless numbers of escape pods had blasted away from vessels in their final death throes and the lucky ones, if you can count as lucky, made planet fall. The ones that ended up remaining in space were picked apart by the invaders; they left nothing living behind if detected. Rocks Fall Everyone Dies Oddly enough, the advanced invaders did not begin their assault on Deralia herself until they completely destroyed all defending ships in orbit. With DCU's Home Fleet grounded to debris and floating space junk, the attacking fleet begin viciously bombarding the planet from orbit. Cities were flattened in minutes, towns turned into smoking ruins, the general population that were unable to reach the capital burned to a crisp. The time that Home Fleet bought for their planet was just enough that the defenders on the ground were able to rig together various generators to output a strong enough shield to protect the capital from orbital obliteration. Though with enough pounding, the shields would have eventually failed due to the strain but apparently the invaders weren't as patient. Landing crafts begin touching down around the shielded dome of the capital as the defenders watched on. Most of the DCU soldiers knew their fate, knew that they had no chance of victory or even stopping the invaders. Their last mission given to them by the President was to delay the enemy as long as possible. Each passing second meant another possible survivor boarding one of the last groups of vessels that will be part of the final exodus. Once the invaders disembarked from their landing transports, they marched on towards the capital. Courage and valour could not make up the gap that the attackers possessed through technology and their mystic powers. The incoming rush was blunted momentarily but only because of the pressure of the concentrated firepower being focused on the invaders. The defenders weren't able to punch through the personal protective barriers that shield the invaders and one by one, the Deralian soldiers fell or were pushed back. They gave ground slowly, yard by yard while their numbers fell. Hover tanks and weapon emplacements were cut through without a second thought and heroic counter charges lead by loyal Deralian only slowed the inevitable advance at the cost of lives. It was only a matter of time before the invaders pushed through the city towards location of the shield generators and gathering refugees. The decision was finally made to stop loading survivors and begin lift-off. All military ground personnel had volunteered to stay behind, knowing that they would be useless in a spaceship, freeing up space for a Deralian citizen to have a chance of living through this hellish nightmare. As the ships begin to power up and ignite their engines, an archaic form of transmission was sent from the DCU groundside to a very outdate satellite that hasn't seen use in decades. The transmission burst was pinged off of that satellite to a predetermined location. This was part of a set of procedures that were put into effect at the beginning of the creation of the Deralian Confederal Union, when their prosperous survival wasn't sure and some sort of escape plan was added as an emergency measure. The fleeing survivors and military commanders groundside did not know if there were any surviving Deralian Naval vessels or if the surviving navy officers even remembered the old procedure, they could only hope and pray that this exodus wasn't just a turkey shoot. As some very little luck would have it, once the transmission burst was sent, hyperspace activity was detected entering the system. All available military vessels, no matter their condition had gathered at the rendezvous point that was designated decades ago. The Captains and acting Captains knew that this was their last chance to help any DCU survivors escape and they jumped back into the maw of the invading fleet. Some more daring captains with ships that were severely damaged plotted their jumps deeper into the system, right on top of the enemy vessels blocking the exit corridor. The courageous and sacrificial move helped bust open a temporary hole as upon collision exiting hyperspace, the invading vessels that were hit took pretty serious gashes to their hull while the DCU vessels shattered and detonated on impact. The rest of the DCU Navy poured into the hole to try to keep it open as long as possible for the transports carrying the last survivors of the Deralian Confederal Union start pouring through the gap. Sadly, the defenders were only able to keep the escape route open for a short period of time as the invaders reinforced themselves and begin chewing up all remaining DCU vessels. Of the total exodus fleet, only a meagre handful escaped who could carry on the DCU name if they choose to. The soldiers ground-side were being mopped up by the invaders as well. With the shield generators located and destroyed, orbital bombardment on the capital commenced and very few survived as they were hunted down. The main group of the invaders finally departed from DCU space after retrieving their ancient artefact though some remained behind for an addition half day to hunt down any remaining survivors they could find. Deralia was the planet to hold out the longest, the others with much smaller numbers of defenders available to them were annihilated much sooner. Over the course of a couple of days, what was once a shining and modern culture was grounded to dust under the feet of an unknown group. Between far more advanced technologies coupled with mystical powers, the Deralian Confederal Union had no chance and there were no clear recordings to tell the story of what happened. The few survivors could only spin tales that to most people were more fiction than fact.